Mass Effect (Shadowrun 4th ed)

Mass Effect

Explosions , arguments and other fun things.

11

JUN/12

A pillar of black smoke curled into the sky as a signal the cargo ship Trannok would never fly again… or even properly be described as ship-like for that matter.

The former asari commando LaLa was picking herself up out of the tall grass and was not happy to feel a blast wave again after all these years. She looked out onto the remains of the ship, while not totally destroyed , it was a sorry sight. The Trannok’s hull was ripped open like a massive wound in her side with another slightly smaller rift on the other. It didn’t take anyone with any experience to tell that this ship would not fly again.

“aaarrgg….. those fuckers! Those fucking fuckers!” Lala remembered that she had rescued the prisoner mercenary from the ship. She waited patiently while he ran out of uses of breath.

“Those fuck-headed fucking fuckers! they left me to die! They actually tried to fuckin blow the fucking ship up with me still fucking in it! Those fucking fuckers! You remember that 50 credits I owe you Jeff? Well you can fuckin forget about being paid back you backstabbing fucker!”

Lala thought she understood terran english pretty well but she had to admit she had never heard fuck used as an adjective,verb and noun in the same sentence before. She turned her attention to the burning ship and was relieved her omni tool confirmed no significant radiation, the drive core hadn’t been cracked open in the blast.

After regrouping with the other survivors , Dr Caligari carefully climbed through the fissure in the hull into what remained of the second deck. The med lab had been hit bad and he had to dig through the rubble to look for his patient.
“Don’t blame me, can’t carry an invalid through a ship’s hatch and I can’t heal you if I died eh?” he mumbled to himself while searching. His hand came back covered in blood…a moment of worry filled him until he found it came from what remained of the “blood donor”. The merc’s corpse had been torn apart but when he found it, the body of Victoria was less damaged. Mostly intact, some shrapnel sticking out, slightly dead.
“Hrm…that’s gonna be a bit challenging.. Humans are so darned fragile but I’ve worked with worse..” He set about trying to restart her heart with something that resembled childlike amusement.

By the time the others had returned to the ship they found Dr Caligari had cleared a workspace in the bombed out med lab, found some medical supplies and was arm deep in the former navigator. Much to their surprize the the little heart monitor (often refered to as the machine that goes PING ) was actually going PING on occasion. Dr Caligari gravely told them that she might make it but the shrapnel shredded her liver. She would need a new one, the merc body was the same blood type but he didn’t have time or facilities to do a full donor compatibility check so he would “just make do”

As the the Qarian was the only other person on board with a shred of medical training, he was delegated as nurse and participated in what he would later call “the most impressive bit of cutting he had ever participated in , in the most batshit poor circumstances short of a gunfight in a burning building”. It was here that shattered med lab filled with the stink of blood and burning plastic that the Quarrian gained his respect for the Krogan’s skill, efficiency, improvisation and intimate knowledge of human physiology. He was quite astounded that Victoria lived.

In the time that followed they discussed the situation and found their new prisoner surprisingly forthcoming with information. He said he didn’t hold much loyalty for people who left him to die and never liked them too much before that. He recounted how they had been hired to do a simple “shoot and grab” but only their commander seemed to know the nature of what they were sent to grab. They had known that the ship would arrive on this isolated world and just waited for it to crash. Something specific that was in one of the mail crates and they had allready collected it, the only reason they were still here was to tie up loose ends.
“us you mean? asked Lala.
“hey nothing personal, just what we were paid to do you know?” the merc was nonchalant about it.

He went on to estimate how many mercenaries might be left and what defences they might have assuming they have’nt packed up and left. If they think all the loose ends are dead…they’ll just leave the planet.

“…sigh… so we have to convince them that we’re still alive then eh?”
Everyone turned and looked at the Quarian in disbelief.